From one of the greatest Shakespeare scholars of our time, Harold
Bloom presents Othello's Iago, perhaps the Bard's most compelling
villain--the fourth in a series of five short books about the great
playwright's most significant personalities.
Few antagonists in all of literature have displayed the ruthless cunning
and deceit of Iago. Denied the promotion he believes he deserves, Iago
takes vengeance on Othello and destroys him.
One of William Shakespeare's most provocative and culturally relevant
plays, Othello is widely studied for its complex and enduring themes
of race and racism, love, trust, betrayal, and repentance. It remains
widely performed across professional and community theatre alike and has
been the source for many film and literary adaptations. Now
award-winning writer and beloved professor Harold Bloom investigates
Iago's motives and unthinkable actions with razor-sharp insight,
agility, and compassion. Why and how does Iago use lies and
deception--the fake news of the 15th century--to destroy Othello and
several other characters in his path? What can Othello tell us about
racism?
Bloom is mesmerizing in the classroom, treating Shakespeare's characters
like people he has known all his life. He delivers exhilarating intimacy
and clarity in these pages, writing about his shifting
understanding--over the course of his own lifetime--of this endlessly
compelling figure, so that Iago also becomes an extraordinarily moving
argument for literature as a path to and a measure of our humanity.
"There are few readers more astute than Bloom" (Publishers Weekly),
and his Iago is a provocative study for our time.
